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There was a time, a few years ago, that I would never be without reading a book on yoga.. some new book was always with me. These days that has stopped a bit, only because I am keen to transfer a lot what has been theory (through the books)into experience. I am restless with this, which is juvenile and immature really, but there it is. It is like having planted the seed, I am constantly uprooting the sapling to check its progress. This is a terrible part along the way. But the last few months, as the singing bowls become more parts of me and my mind and soul, so much of all that restlessness is settling down. It is not as if the tree is fully grown yet, but I am done with uprooting the sapling:)
I returned, somewhat tentatively, to my huge collection (I only stopped "consuming" the books, but did not stop buying them:) to my favorite author, the one by whom I place all my yoga learnings on, Swami Satyanandaji. In his tome, Yoga and Kriya, he writes this riveting snippet about antar mukhi and bahir mukhi.
Bahir mukhi is when we are normally engaged with external activities. Even being aware of thoughts is a way of extroversion, because,says Swamiji, in yoga even thoughts are an extroversion. It is outside of who you are.
Antar mukhi is a state that shimmers between extroversion and introversion, and is a route towards transcendence.
It is obviously a cryptic state, hidden from us mere mortals and stragglers on the path. Ramana Maharishi (as quoted by Swamiji in this chapter) has said of this state: " In one breath I returned; with one mind I retruned; with one awareness I returned."
I realize as I sit in meditation , how the stampede of thoughts, presumably mine, retards my memory from that.
Here is the quote from Rumi, that has been shining in my mind:
"You go to a country to carry out one special, specific task. If you have not performed the task you were sent out for, it is as if you have performed nothing at all."
I returned, somewhat tentatively, to my huge collection (I only stopped "consuming" the books, but did not stop buying them:) to my favorite author, the one by whom I place all my yoga learnings on, Swami Satyanandaji. In his tome, Yoga and Kriya, he writes this riveting snippet about antar mukhi and bahir mukhi.
Bahir mukhi is when we are normally engaged with external activities. Even being aware of thoughts is a way of extroversion, because,says Swamiji, in yoga even thoughts are an extroversion. It is outside of who you are.
Antar mukhi is a state that shimmers between extroversion and introversion, and is a route towards transcendence.
It is obviously a cryptic state, hidden from us mere mortals and stragglers on the path. Ramana Maharishi (as quoted by Swamiji in this chapter) has said of this state: " In one breath I returned; with one mind I retruned; with one awareness I returned."
I realize as I sit in meditation , how the stampede of thoughts, presumably mine, retards my memory from that.
Here is the quote from Rumi, that has been shining in my mind:
"You go to a country to carry out one special, specific task. If you have not performed the task you were sent out for, it is as if you have performed nothing at all."
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